Hunter College High School

I graduated in 1966. My math teacher (I took calculus in the 11^th grade) suggested that I apply to MIT, which I did. I earned three degrees in EE from MIT before my 22^nd birthday. I had 7 hours of homework a night in my senior year at Hunter. This really prepared me for MIT. Though I was not the valedictorian at Hunter (I was 21^st in my class), many valedictorians from other schools who came to MIT had a really hard time because they had not had to do much homework in high school. By the way, I was a nice Jewish girl from New York. Later, in my career, because I am a white female, I had to keep proving that I was not some kind of idiot because I was a woman. When I succeeded in my work, the men were jealous and tried to derail me. Neither Hunter nor MIT prepared me for this. Despite all of this, I feel that I owe a great deal to Hunter, to my teachers, and to everything that I learned there. It was a remarkable experience and was well worth all of the stress. While I was there, I also learned that I could dream solutions to my math homework for problems I couldn’t solve before bedtime. This skill helped me a lot at MIT and throughout my career.

A long time ago, on a subway far, far away*, I attended HCHS. Most of the great teachers I had have either retired or passed away. Last time I looked, my 9^th grade math teacher was still soldiering on slinging the equations and one of my classmates is now continuing the tradition as a social studies teacher, following in the footsteps of Mr. Marienhoff (a great teacher and influence on many of us).
Here are some facts about the school not often known outside the Hunter community. Every year, if you take the top 10% of 6^th Grade kids in NYC (~2200−2500) that scored well on the 5^th grade NYS ELA & math exams (what used to be called the city-​wides), gave them the entrance exam and took the top 10% of those, you’d end up with the top 1%, which is roughly, a typical Hunter 7^th grade class. Remember that this happens a full 2 years before they would take the Specialized High Schools exam (SHSAT). This gives Hunter the advantage of reaping the cream of the crop long before Stuyvesant, Bronx Science or Brooklyn Tech can get a crack at them. Over the first couple of years, some students will have personal, disciplinary or academic problems and will leave or be asked to leave, but their places are not filled by new students because they can only enter at the beginning of 7^th grade. Those asked to leave go back and excel at their neighborhood schools.
Like the other NYC specialized high schools, the education is tuition free and the best that the city can offer. Unlike those schools, you’ll be staying for 6 years from grades 7 – 12. The Hunter College Campus Schools (including the Elementary School) is administered by Hunter College (CUNY) and not the NYC Dept of Education. This raises a whole load of other issues because Hunter is not subject to the Chancellor of the DOE nor receives funding like other NYC schools. Starting in 7^th grade also gives students at Hunter the opportunity to finish their NYS Regents requirements by 10^th or 11^th grade and allows them to take more AP courses and to do an internship in their senior year. Completing both programs, the graduate receives both the Hunter and Regents diplomas.
There has been a lot of press and allegations lately about the lack of diversity at Hunter and other Specialized schools that are groundless. If you can pass the test, you get in, end of story. Whether you received outside test prep or not, the bottom line is you were either prepared or not, no matter what your ethnic background.
You better believe that if you attend Hunter, you will be going to college. With the Hunter name on your diploma, you stand a better than average chance to get into a top tier college or university. Hunter is known as the top feeder to the Ivy League and that is not a hollow statistic, but is proven every year. Among my class of 200, 10 students went to Cornell alone, with 4 to Harvard and others to Columbia, Princeton, UPenn, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth. We even had 3 going to MIT. Those are big percentages that is repeated year after year and that you will not find in any other school.
I have very fond memories of my alma mater and appreciation for the place grows as you get older. So what I say to all the recent students and graduates that gripe about their experience at Hunter is that you’ll be thankful for it in 10 – 20 years when all the bad experiences are in the past and you remember all the good things such as your life-​long friends and the stellar education that you carry with you for the rest of your life.
Here’s an example of the work of some current students and a tour of the school.
And to make this a true Unilocal review, what little cafeteria food we had was absolutely horrendous. You were better off going to any of the local delis (except the one we used to call the smelly deli).
*Star Wars did come out about that time in ancient history and the records of us cutting class to go see it are lost in the mists of time. Han shot first!

Although I hated Hunter for the most part while I attended it (waking up at 5am and the two hour commute from Long Island wasn’t fun), I definitely don’t regret it now that I’m in college. After experiencing what professors consider «class» to be in college, I realize that the teachers are Hunter cared a lot more about both the students and subject material. Seriously, we learned about the Plato’s Allegory of a Cave in SEVENTH grade, which helped me with a 200 level philosophy class in sophomore year of college. They also have a lot more of a chill factor.
The only weird thing was the abnormally skewed Asian population at Hunter compared to all the other NYC public high schools. I was in for a bit of a culture shock when I went to a college with more Caucasian and African-​American students.
I miss sleeping in the hallways. Just kidding.

Come on guys, you’re not meant to really love your high school, anyway – it’s high school for chrissake!
Having said that, I recently returned to Hunter (my old booze-​soaked stomping grounds) for the first time since I graduated five years ago. Went for a Musical Rep production and it didn’t disappoint. The rendition of Cabaret was fabulous (considering it was put on by 17 year olds and the costumes weren’t designed and made by me anymore… but what can you do).
Ah well, this must be the most pointless review on Unilocal.Are prospective students’ parents Unilocaling their future high schools? I really hope not.

I logged A LOT of years in this place. from 7^th to 12^th grade i roamed the halls of this castle that was bordering on a prison at times. On a whim i decided to search for my highschool on here and found that it was listed, which was strange, but it gave me a chance to talk about this place.
Now of course, what I’m saying about it is from when I went here, and at the time it was one of the top High Schools in all of New York City. It’s private but not (not private in that it doesn’t cost a zillion dollars, but it’s private in that you have to take an exam to get in) and because of it’s entrace exam and the way they set it up and market it, the school was a large assortment of people from ALL OVER the NYC area.
The things i liked about the school are obvious. Academics, opportunity i wouldn’t get going to a regular Board of Ed school, and getting to meet some people who have become more than friends to me now. The kids at the school when i went were bordering on strange, some just out right weird, but our group, albeit a motley crue… somehow formed a strange comradery (sp*), and you still feel, even though you may not like it, that you were a part of something (6 years in HS i guess will do that to you).
Due to some issues I had with certain faculty I can’t give this place 5 stars, especially since i left, i’ve heard that the academics have dropped off… not to mention i passed by the old brikk prison just recently, to find that they added even MORE bars in the school yard, it’s alot more like Pelican Bay than it was bakk in my day… But it is still the Alma mater, and for all the good i got out of this place, i thank you…

Ugh, I shudder every time I pass my alma matter. On one hand, it provided an excellent education, got rid of my Brooklyn accent, and gave me lots of culture (going to the Met to do homework was pretty awesome). On the other hand, the social atmosphere is oppressive, competitive, petty, conformist and ridiculously horrible and the place has no damn windows. So I turned out smart, but somewhat socially awkward and very pale.

Alma MATTER? That’s not a Hunter girl’s spelling.
Some brainy kids go to HCHS, now located on 94^th and Park.
Excellent, if competitive public school.
Was not coed when I went, and was at the Hunter College venue then.